Ivianna Canciaris
=Ivianna Canciaris (Former Princess of Miranda)= "Oh, I'm fine... That's exactly the part that scares the hell out of me - that I want to do it again. That part of me feels that I didn't go even remotely far enough. I know Red, Chameleon, Valerie, some of the others, they joke about stuff like this... But now? Now I've done that myself, and I'm entirely sure that there's something.... Broken in me now." - Ivianna Canciaris, to Atalaya Kazushige, turning down an offer to train under Atalaya Full name-- Ivianna Canciaris Race-- Half-Fiendish Human (Canciaris Lineage) Age-- 18 Eyes-- Green Hair-- Dark Purple Height-- 5' 8" (Not counting wings) Weight-- 111 Lbs. Innate Element-- Dark/Electric Preferred weapon(s)-- Unknown The eldest daughter of Queen Brooke Canciaris, Ivianna (Pronounciation: Ihv-ee-ahn-ah), or "Ivy" as she prefers to be called, is the best-known (and most infamous) of the Queen's children, being the one largely responsible for the Rygard Phantom incident. A childhood friend of Marcel Gilneas, Ivy was looked up to - and respected - by many of the others, including Kid, Red, Yuri, and Rana. Formerly a Mirandian Soldier who refused an officer's position due to her social standing to enlist with the common folk, Ivianna has, since the Rygard Phantom incident, been declared unfit for service and has been dishonorably discharged, and is undergoing extensive psychotherapy for post-traumatic stress disorder. She was also stripped of her title as a consequence. Ivianna is the founder and De Facto leader of Nightwatch, a small mercenary group based out of Miranda. Ivianna is noted for two things - a sense of duty that far outclasses that of many her age, and a sort of dour fatalism that tinges a lot of conversations with her. Whilst those that Ivy has befriended have a noted tendency to remain allied to her through thick and thin, the entire Rygard Phantom incident and the aftermath thereof have shattered a lot of the relationships she held with those closest to her. Whilst she revered and cared deeply for Cima Marin - her former mentor - and Yuri, a close friend of hers, the incident left a gap between them that only recently has been bridged. She is on good terms with Bunnie, Kid, Luvenia Luraleia, Voryn, and to a lesser degree, Chameleon. She was once extremely close to Marcel Gilneas, but the two grew apart after her abduction by Natural Selection. Red finds her fascinating, and [Isabelle Florentine and Vyacheslav Lagunov both have a hearty level of respect for her (the latter is said to find her "cute," but won't dare say so to her face). Her current mental state and general attitude have afforded her relatively few friends beyond these. Her relationship with her family is, likewise, complex; she doesn't get along particularly well with her mother, and her relationship with her siblings has become somewhat strained. She gets along particularly well with Vidian, who wound up helping Ivy during the Phantom incident. Even today, the two are frequently seen together. ---- The Incident "They robbed her of her innocence.... And far worse, if what the medics said is accurate." - Bunnie Mae Rabbot, to Luvenia Luraleia When Ivy was younger, some 5 years ago, Miranda was attacked by a covert-ops team sent by Natural Selection, and the girl was kidnapped by the notorious human-supremacist militant group. She was tortured and badly injured, despite her youth, and NS attempted to use her as a bargaining chip with her mother. The operation proved much more troublesome than anticipated, however - Ivianna escaped containment and killed several NS troops in a desperate bid to escape. She was subdued, however, and was intentionally crippled by the NS troops at the base - an action that would eventually lead to their downfall, as this caused Ivianna to lose control of her influence over the weather, resulting in a mile-wide tempest occuring over the NS facility she was being held in. A daring raid by a Mirandian Infiltration team managed to free the girl, but Ivy was never the same again afterwards; she had witnessed and experienced things no one her age should have had to, including the pointless murder of several students she had gone to school with and were taken in the same raid she was. When Ivianna recovered, some 4 months later, she could not forget what happened to her. Skilled with magic, her only desire was to see Natural Selection pay for the lives they had destroyed - including hers. Formulating a plan, Ivianna accessed archaic lore from the Palace Library and was successful in creating a powerful ritual spell which, if successful, would have been able to turn all of the NS troops within range upon one another in a tide of homicidal rage. Whilst actually casting such a powerful spell was far beyond her abilities, and whilst likely would have injured or killed her to cast, she successfully found a way to invoke the ritual, and had every intent to make use of it to bring retribution to both NS and Destiny's Call. She was stopped only by the direct intervention of Lulu, Kamil, Cid Padesh, and Voryn, who successfully convinced her to not undertake this plan. Not knowing what to do, Ivianna sought a new path, and found it in the most unlikely of places... The Student Wanting to do her part to stop the likes of what NS had caused, Ivianna eventually decided to join the Mirandian Military. Despite being a princess and thus entitled to an officer's position by default, Ivianna turned this offer down and instead enlisted amongst the rank-and-file, a manuver that was viewed with considerable respect by many of her fellow new recruits. All reports indicate that Ivianna was a model soldier - disciplined, intelligent, and quick to learn. Within a year, Ivy's prowess had attracted the attention of several Mirandian Military groups that took interest in the girl, and one of them, the Mirandian Scouts, seemed to click with her. Needing additional training for the task at hand, Queen Brooke contracted Cima Marin to train her, which Cima agreed to. Ivy proved herself capable, and Cima was quickly impressed with the girl's performance. Ivy had an exceptional mission success record, and routinely performed her assignments with exceptional skill. In short order, Ivianna was cleared to serve in her new post, performing quite well in both reconnaissance and infiltration/sabotage roles. Breaking Point Tragedy struck during a mission in which Ivianna's unit was assigned to mark targets near the Paramisian front for airstrikes. The now-notorious EMP Strike that temporarily crippled the Mirandian region occured, and Paramisian troops began flooding across the border. Ivianna's squad came under heavy fire, which was a disaster for a unit intended for covert ops duty. Most of Ivianna's unit was quickly routed, and the unit fell back towards Raxis, in an attempt to get out of the way of what was clearly a disaster-in-progress. Injured by the attack, Ivianna sent the remainder of her squad ahead, so as to not slow them down. Unfortunately, she soonafter ran into a Natural Selection Kill Team, that had been taking advantage of the attack to carry out their despicable agenda of slaughtering non-humans. Seeing a high-value target in Ivianna, they pursued her, forcing the wounded girl wildly off-course and into the ruined city of Hom. Badly injured and bleeding out, Ivianna managed to lose her attackers for a few moments, hiding in a bombed-out building - but quickly found her first aid kit woefully inadequate to deal with the wounds she had taken in fleeing the NS troops. Realizing that she was likely doomed, her mind raced for some way - any way - she could ensure the NS Troops would be unable to follow her squad. Desperation caused her to recall the spell she had invented, nearly 2 years ago, `and the girl readied it, her last act of defiance against the Natural Selection troops in the area. The spell was at once a failure and a success, all at once - Ivianna collapsed from the drain, but the spell accomplished its grim work, driving the NS Troops into a screaming, homicidal blood-frenzy that caused them to turn upon one another with horrendous violence. Ivianna herself was not immune to the spell; she could feel it driving conscious thought from her mind, replacing it with an overpowering urge to kill - but her weakened state ensured she wouldn't be able to take advantage of it. Her life would have ended here - were it not for the involvement of a petulent young devil named Grimmn'elvuul. Drawn to the violence and death occuring in the area like a moth to a candle, Grimm proceeded to rampage to the center of Hom, gleefully indulging in the ongoing slaughter. Things changed when he found, at the heart of this, the broken body of Ivianna, at death's door and unable to move or speak. Looking at her like an injured kitten, Grimm could not turn away. Unable to use healing magic, Grimm struck upon a bold move, infusing Ivianna with a shard of his own spirit to replenish her vitality before binding her wounds. Whilst this did, indeed, save her life and managed to stabilize her, it worsened the screaming bloodlust echoing through her mind - though she was still too weak to act upon it. Grimm absconded with the princess towards the north, but was unprepared for Ivianna waking up and attacking him, forcing him to leave her behind, outside of Rygard. The Rygard Phantom Ivianna awoke in a fugue state, driven by a insatiable rage, which, due to Grimm's essence infusion, was now focused to a blinding intensity. Overcome with this rage, and infused with a measure of Grimm's personality and memory, Ivianna began a campaign of terror which would become infamous in short order. Focused entirely on one set of targets - the enemies of Miranda - Ivianna repeatedly ambushed, isolated, and butchered the Paramisian and Natural Selection troops she encountered, leaving their mutilated corpses as grim markers as to her passing. A prisoner within her own mind, Ivianna was helpless to resist the murderous urges implanted by the spell and infusion, only able to resist its effects for short periods and able to nudge it towards a safer direction. She made desperate attempts during this time to let others know of her fate, but to little avail. Her only attempt to reach out that succeeded was in a message to Yuri, who, due to having Ivianna's spellbook and being so emotionally tied to her, wound up the target of her attempt inadvertently. Unwilling to reveal to Yuri what she become, she instead insisted that she had passed away and was merely visiting him in this fashion to calm him and try to help him find his own path. Her doing so would later backfire spectacularly when the knowledge that she was still alive would surface, causing Yuri to feel both betrayed and alienated. During this time, Ivy's cousin, Vidian, began to approach her in an attempt to help her. Though Ivy tried to drive her off, Vidian would not be swayed, and wound up becoming Ivy's primary support during the Phantom incident as Ivy's rage began to slowly bleed away. In time, the spell's effects - and the side-effects brought about by Grimm - began to subside, and the murderous rage that had driven Ivianna to become the Phantom bled away. Now left only with fear and revulsion at her actions, having killed over 70 people, Ivianna did not know what to do - she was keenly aware that she would be blamed for what had occured, and that were the truth to come out, she would be considered a war criminal. With no other choice in her eyes, she maintained the guise of the Phantom for another 3 weeks, until she regrouped with Cima Marin and Marcel Gilneas. Unwilling to lie to them, she revealed the truth of her identity, and was prepared fully to accept the consequences. Accepted Fate The revelation of the Phantom's identity caused considerable controversy. Not only were Ivianna's actions classifiable under the war crimes act, but her sudden going "off-the-grid" was viewed as desertion. Unable to come to terms with the damage she had caused to several close to her - Yuri had been driven to the brink by the loss of Ivy and subsuquent revelation of the truth, and Cima was viewed as a major cause of Ivianna's instability. Putting it simply, she had accepted her fate - viewing much of the incident as her own fault. In time, the full truth of the incident came out, and whilst Ivianna was released, what she had done under Grimm's influence could not be ignored. Stripped of her rank and title and ejected from the military, Ivianna wound up something of an outcast, largely unwelcome in her own country and viewed as both a hero and villain by her own countrymen. Ivianna's outcast status made her the subject of considerable controversy. Most felt she didn't belong anywhere near a battlefield. She had it out with her former mentor, Cima, on many occasions, as Cima likewise called her dangerous and unfit for duty. At one point, the pair finally threw down - both Ivianna and Cima went to the training field and supposedly had it out in a knife-fight that lasted nearly 10 minutes, with neither combatant able to score anything other than superficial damage to the other - Cima scored only one successful slash - a gash on Ivy's right cheek, and Ivy's apparent skill caught her by surprise. The fight was interrupted by Abraham Jadesco, who demanded that they break it up since Cima had an assignment to go on in half an hour. After that, Cima's opinion on Ivianna softened somewhat. Nightwatch Left with a suite of combat skills and nowhere to apply them, Ivianna drifted for a bit. Official Mercenary groups, such as MOM, refused to have anything to do with her, and despite several overtures from Lulu, Ivianna was wholly unable to adapt to civilian life. Several smaller military groups had interest in her, and it is rumored that she was approached by the Church of Eatos and even Destiny's Call - but she turned them all down (violently, if rumors are to be believed, in the case of the latter). When visiting Cima Marin, who was recovering from combat injuries suffered during Operation Fulcrum, the two finally made peace with one another, and Cima quietly suggested that Ivy may be suited to freelance Mercenary work. Ivy thought about this for a while, and eventually came upon a brainstorm - Miranda was loaded with freelance mercenaries - including several she personally knew. If she could organize them, she could get them superior bargaining-power, better contracts, and functionally work towards a better life for all involved. Cima seemed quietly amused by this - even though she didn't fully approve of Ivy's choice of team members, she knew Ivy was a capable leader, and seemed pleased with Ivianna's progress. Ivy first recruited Isabelle, followed by Lagunov. Together with Daneil later, the four drove a Paramisian deserter unit out of a manor north of the capital - and in short order, turned it into their base of operations, taking Ivy's personal emblem as the symbol of their new merc group, which was dubbed "Nightwatch." Their unit currently seeks additional members, resources, and equipment, hoping to eventually bring in sufficient resources to make for a much more effective PMC.